Chugai News Releases are issued to provide stakeholders with the most up-to-date information related to our company. In some instances, information on products or drug candidates under development may be included, but this is intended for members of the media, shareholders, and investors. The information is not intended for promotional or advertising purposes, or as medical advice, etc.

Oct 18, 2018

A First Approach in the Pharmaceutical Industry Starting the Provision of a Treatment Support App for Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor Using Multidisciplinary SNS

- Providing a New Solution for Side Effect Management -

Chugai Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.
Embrace Co., Ltd.

TOKYO, October 18, 2018 -- Chugai Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (TOKYO: 4519) and Embrace Co., Ltd. (TOKYO) announced that both companies commenced the provision of an application program (app) they have developed to support treatment in conjunction with a multi-disciplinary Social Networking Service (SNS) that ensures smooth communication between patients and healthcare providers (HCPs) for the purpose of managing side effects that patients experience when treated with an immune checkpoint inhibitor TECENTRIQ® (atezolizumab) manufactured and sold by Chugai.

This app is a new Web app created based on “MedicalCareStation (MCS),” a completely private SNS that was developed by Embrace exclusively for HCPs and nursing providers for the establishment of an integrated community care system, and a “checklist of immune-related adverse events (irAEs) associated with immune checkpoint inhibitors” used at Kyushu University Hospital. This app offers the following features.

  • Patients or their families can enter the patient’s physical condition and symptoms of concern
  • Notification function for regular data entry
  • Share physical condition and symptoms of concern entered by patients or their families with the entire medical team
  • Display alert messages to patients, their families, and medical team, depending on the severity of symptoms of concern
  • Communication between patients/their families and HCPs

Professor Yoichi Nakanishi at the Department of Respiratory Medicine, the Graduate School of Kyushu University, supervised the app and said, “Since immune checkpoint inhibitors have a different safety profile from traditional chemotherapy, such as expression of irAEs, it poses a new calling to both patients and HCPs. To solve the issue, it is expected that utilizing ICT will shorten the distance between patients and HCPs, prevent irAEs from becoming fatal through early detection and treatment, and lead to make patients feel at ease.”

This is the first app of its kind in Japan that is linked to medical SNS to support treatment with immune checkpoint inhibitors. A trial use of a drug adherence support app was conducted in 2017 in outpatient cancer treatment.* By combining findings from the trial with MCS, it has been newly developed as a treatment support app for immune checkpoint inhibitors. The validity of conducting programs using this app in actual clinical practice has been deliberated and approved** at Non-Profit Organization (NPO) MINS Institutional Review Board (IRB). This app is operated on the MCS platform spreading nationwide as a multidisciplinary SNS and has scalability, which is one of its features. MCS is currently used by more than 30,000 healthcare and related facilities nationwide, and has been formally adopted by over 200 medical associations in Japan.

By linking this app to MCS, we expect to foster patient-centered communication among HCPs and promote smooth communication between patients and HCPs. In addition, we also expect that this will lead to early detection and treatment of irAEs, since at-home patients’ daily physical condition and symptoms of concern can be shared with HCPs on a timely manner based on the “checklist of immune-related adverse events (irAEs) associated with immune checkpoint inhibitors”.

Chugai and Embrace aim to promote treatment support and side effect management through the development of patient-centered communications.

Solution Structure
- Treatment Support App:
Provide functions that record daily physical condition and subjective symptoms, and post recorded information to multidisciplinary SNS
- Multidisciplinary SNS:
Provide functions that facilitate communication between patients and HCPs, and also communication among HCPs, etc.

Future Developments
We will consider offering a treatment support app using a multidisciplinary SNS in disease areas other than cancer.

* Press release on April 4, 2017

A First Approach in the Japanese Pharmaceutical Industry
Starting a Trial of a Drug Adherence Support App Using Multidisciplinary SNS for Outpatient Cancer Treatment
-- Providing a New Solution for Side Effect Management --

https://www.chugai-pharm.co.jp/english/news/detail/20170404110000_90.html

** The 82nd NPO MINS-IRB Minutes Summary

Notes regarding this app
- Medical fee cannot be claimed.
- If an adverse event is observed after the administration of TECENTRIQ, HCPs are required to report the event to Chugai separately from the app.

About Chugai
Chugai Pharmaceutical is one of Japan’s leading research-based pharmaceutical companies with strengths in biotechnology products. Chugai, based in Tokyo, specializes in prescription pharmaceuticals and is listed on the 1st section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange. As an important member of the Roche Group, Chugai is actively involved in R&D activities in Japan and abroad. Specifically, Chugai is working to develop innovative products which may satisfy the unmet medical needs, mainly focusing on the oncology area.
In Japan, Chugai’s research facilities in Gotemba and Kamakura are collaborating to develop new pharmaceuticals and laboratories in Ukima are conducting research for technology development for industrial production. Overseas, Chugai Pharmabody Research based in Singapore is engaged in research focusing on the generation of novel antibody drugs by utilizing Chugai’s proprietary innovative antibody engineering technologies. Chugai Pharma USA and Chugai Pharma Europe are engaged in clinical development activities in the United States and Europe.
The consolidated revenue in 2017 of Chugai totaled 534.2 billion yen and the operating income was 103.2 billion yen (IFRS Core basis).
Additional information is available on the internet at https://www.chugai-pharm.co.jp/english/.

About Embrace
Embrace’s mission is to create the new social infrastructure by providing Medical and Nursing ICT Platform. Since 2013, our Medical and Nursing SNS called “MedicalCareStation” has been used by tens of thousands of medical facilities, doctors, nurses and caregivers including over 180 Medical Associations in Japan.
We focus on solving issues that has been and will be caused by the ‘Aging Society’ and we try to establish the new eco-system among medical-staffs, patients, residents, partner companies and the government by connecting them on MedicalCareStation platform.

Trademarks used or mentioned in this release are protected by law.

Contact:

Chugai Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.
Media Relations Group,
Corporate Communications Dept.
Tel: +81-3-3273-0881

Embrace Co., Ltd.
MedicalCareStation Support Desk
Tel: +81-0-6447-2061

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